Export and analyze your own data in Excel

Whagwan83

As a stats geek thanks a lot for this tool!

Whagwan83

Hi, upon initial import I am getting the following errors:

ERROR: The most recent error number is 5. Its message text is :Invalid procedure call or argument.

ERROR: After location 0 in function Change_Axis_Scales. THe most recent error number is 1004. Its message text is: Unable to set the MaximumScale property of the Axis class. Please report this to EvgenuZentx

ERROR: After location 3 in function Set_All_Graphs. The most recent error number is 13. Its message text is: Type mismatch. Please report this to EvgenuZyntx.

Thanks!

Mischievous_Rascal

Bumping for later. Thank you from the bottom of my number-filled heart. :flowerforyou:

jofjltncb6

Do you think it would be useful for the non-exercise TDEE that might help to decide to change your daily activity level (for those doing MFP method I'd gather) to use the MFP multipliers rather than the TDEE charts that include exercise?

It seems if you are going to take any TDEE and subtract the exercise back out, you are now getting a value that is really only going to be useful doing it MFP method, since you must be adding exercise back in.

Because their multiplier's are based on new study research and are different than the TDEE charts.

Sedentary - 1.25
Lightly Active - 1.4
Active - 1.6
Very Active - 1.8

Ok, I can update those. And yes, I think that TDEE - ex it really is useful only for MFP settings (a pseudo RMR if you are really logging all exercise)

If I get this correctly, you are also suggesting giving a table with

(oTDEE - exercise) * activity factor = MFP non-exercise TDEE

I could also include an x cut for y lbs per week subtractor.

I'll see what I can build out without creating confusion.

Oh, I wouldn't go that far probably, but your point in description with graph about being perhaps more active than you thought you were, and selecting another activity level to better represent your non-exercise portion of day, I think is good point.


I'll also mention regarding the Fitbit adjustments that show up as exercise entries, those are not just the calorie burn from exercise, but the difference between MFP non-exercise maintenance, and Fitbit TDEE, which may or may not include exercise.

I've had days where really sedentary, except for the short intense workout. That was manually logged on Fitbit since it had bad low estimate on the burn (ie non-step based).

But when the compare with MFP happened, no adjustment, so it appeared no exercise. Or similar, big long workout, and indeed lazier rest of the day to recovery. The adjustment is easily 200 less than the workout was logged as.

Not sure if you handle those with caveats in the instructions, or figure someone with Fitbit is already getting their TDEE estimate there.

I have similar experiences in my fitbit logging of exercise and have given this some thought as well. Strangely enough, you would actually increase the accuracy of the overall estimate by *reducing* the MFP assumed activity level (as this hands off the calculation to fitbit more quickly/often which for this purpose are assuming is more accurate than MFP in the TDEE assumption (especially on no/low-exercise days).

I can't imagine the extraction tool would be able to do anything to deal with this problem without pulling the data directly from fitbit.

Although, I suppose allowing negative adjustments from fitbit on MFP would handle this, right?

EvgeniZyntx

Do you think it would be useful for the non-exercise TDEE that might help to decide to change your daily activity level (for those doing MFP method I'd gather) to use the MFP multipliers rather than the TDEE charts that include exercise?

It seems if you are going to take any TDEE and subtract the exercise back out, you are now getting a value that is really only going to be useful doing it MFP method, since you must be adding exercise back in.

Because their multiplier's are based on new study research and are different than the TDEE charts.

Sedentary - 1.25
Lightly Active - 1.4
Active - 1.6
Very Active - 1.8

Ok, I can update those. And yes, I think that TDEE - ex it really is useful only for MFP settings (a pseudo RMR if you are really logging all exercise)

If I get this correctly, you are also suggesting giving a table with

(oTDEE - exercise) * activity factor = MFP non-exercise TDEE

I could also include an x cut for y lbs per week subtractor.

I'll see what I can build out without creating confusion.

Oh, I wouldn't go that far probably, but your point in description with graph about being perhaps more active than you thought you were, and selecting another activity level to better represent your non-exercise portion of day, I think is good point.


I'll also mention regarding the Fitbit adjustments that show up as exercise entries, those are not just the calorie burn from exercise, but the difference between MFP non-exercise maintenance, and Fitbit TDEE, which may or may not include exercise.

I've had days where really sedentary, except for the short intense workout. That was manually logged on Fitbit since it had bad low estimate on the burn (ie non-step based).

But when the compare with MFP happened, no adjustment, so it appeared no exercise. Or similar, big long workout, and indeed lazier rest of the day to recovery. The adjustment is easily 200 less than the workout was logged as.

Not sure if you handle those with caveats in the instructions, or figure someone with Fitbit is already getting their TDEE estimate there.

I have similar experiences in my fitbit logging of exercise and have given this some thought as well. Strangely enough, you would actually increase the accuracy of the overall estimate by *reducing* the MFP assumed activity level (as this hands off the calculation to fitbit more quickly/often which for this purpose are assuming is more accurate than MFP in the TDEE assumption (especially on no/low-exercise days).

I can't imagine the extraction tool would be able to do anything to deal with this problem without pulling the data directly from fitbit.

Although, I suppose allowing negative adjustments from fitbit on MFP would handle this, right?

Couple of comments:

- observed TDEE (oTDEE) doesn't use exercise or burn data; it's what you eat and gain/lose in weight that is used. It assumes a constant relationship of 3500 for each lb gained/lost (which isn't exactly true). Therefore the calculation isn't impacted at all by the fitbit adjustment or errors in evaluating or recording exercise burns.

- by subtracting burns from oTDEE to create a "non-exercise" oTDEE we introduce those possible sources of error - fitbit corrections as exercise, burn data variability

The resulting non-exercise oTDEE can be used to set-up MFP custom Net Calories Consumed* but what happens with those extra bitfit calories?

Let's say that the fitbit is adding on 200 extra cals and exercises give 300 cals per day average. Let's build up an sample situation:

Settings = 2000 cals
oTDEE = 2500 cals
burns=500 (200+ fitbit, 300 recorded)

There wouldn't be an issue because the fitbit is only adding the extra cals missed from exercise and MFP setting. If the person recorded 400 exercise cals, the fitbit will only add 100 as it estimates the total burn and eliminates the exercise period - if the user wrote the correct duration when recording the exercise burn.)

Does this make sense? Do you guys see it otherwise?

cnlargent

awesome I will download when I get home

bioya40

bump

beertrollruss

Thank you for building this and sharing. I'm a fellow Excel geek and it looks like you put quite a bit of work into this.

Alyssa_Is_LosingIt

This is awesome. Thanks for taking the time to do this!

MomTo3Lovez

Awesome thanks!

jeicorsair

Fantastic update!

For some reason the Observed and Theoretical TDEE graph isn't generating for me (Excel 2013). The other 3 graphs (and rest of the document) work great. Not sure what might be causing that, but it's still worth using regardless.

Snip8241

Bump....thanks!

missyjane824

Bump

freddi11e

bump

heybales

Couple of comments:

- observed TDEE (oTDEE) doesn't use exercise or burn data; it's what you eat and gain/lose in weight that is used. It assumes a constant relationship of 3500 for each lb gained/lost (which isn't exactly true). Therefore the calculation isn't impacted at all by the fitbit adjustment or errors in evaluating or recording exercise burns.

- by subtracting burns from oTDEE to create a "non-exercise" oTDEE we introduce those possible sources of error - fitbit corrections as exercise, burn data variability

The resulting non-exercise oTDEE can be used to set-up MFP custom Net Calories Consumed* but what happens with those extra bitfit calories?

Let's say that the fitbit is adding on 200 extra cals and exercises give 300 cals per day average. Let's build up an sample situation:

Settings = 2000 cals
oTDEE = 2500 cals
burns=500 (200+ fitbit, 300 recorded)

There wouldn't be an issue because the fitbit is only adding the extra cals missed from exercise and MFP setting. If the person recorded 400 exercise cals, the fitbit will only add 100 as it estimates the total burn and eliminates the exercise period - if the user wrote the correct duration when recording the exercise burn.)

Does this make sense? Do you guys see it otherwise?

That is totally correct, that adjustment, one direction or another, will happen if you have syncing pos/neg enabled.

I wasn't even intending to attempt to bring Fitbit in to the equation, but merely that fact if you grab exercise records, and attempt to subtract them from oTDEE, some of those records are actually not exercise but adjustments to get MFP up to the TDEE Fitbit saw.

Doesn't impact oTDEE at all.

In fact, for using Fitbit, if someone is short and has a low BMR and low estimated TDEE outside of exercise (MPF maintenance) because of selecting sedentary, they get less deficit using MPF built-in methods than otherwise. Because MFP stops deficit at 1200.
So if that meant you only got 330 deficit instead of selected 500, but you always were more active like Lightly Active, your max deficit would still only be 330 because of the way MFP handles the math.
Better to select Lightly Active and get full 500 deficit, and receive a few more negative adjustments when the day is done.

I wouldn't even try to include those points though.
I was merely commenting on fact that everything that shows up as exercise isn't always exercise, but indeed has no effect on the oTDEE obtained by math.

JG762

Tag for later review.

EvgeniZyntx

A big update on the data export tool is now available from the usual location - This is now Version 5.01

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/EvgeniZyntx/view/new-mfp-data-export-tool-major-update-659927

The tool remains fast - takes about 1-3 minutes to perform all downloads
This is a major design overhaul - simplified to present all data in two tabs and now has help/explanation bubbles
Single button execution and simple reset button
Supports being printed out
Works in mixed metrics/US/UK units, works in international Windows system parameters
Resolved minor bugs on macro objective extractions and calculations
It has all macro data including cholesterol, sodium, fiber and sugar on the start tab, along with the usual protein, carbs, fats pie charts for today, the last week and two weeks ago.
Added an "ignore today" check box, now fully supported yet.
Enjoy!

Aaron_K123

Very cool, playing with the latest update...looking good. I think my numbers are skewed a bit from eating more calories to recoup from a backpacking trip. If I let it default to a 14 day average on the TDEE calculation it says my TDEE is like 3600 which I think is an overestimate. Not the fault of the calculator though, just my behavior lately with regards to my diet and exercise has been erratic. Looks really good though, easy to use. Here are my results.



One thing I will say is that the trend-line it draws on the TDEE graph seems wrong.

EvgeniZyntx

Thanks for the feedback, Aaron!
Looks like you are being quite successful.

You are right the lower the number of days to average, it will have be influence by recent changes to diet/exercise. I should make sure to keep it at 30 days as default.
The trend line drawn on the lower right graph is a linear least square fit - not "wrong", just not a good fit. You've either gotten more active as you lose, or worked on changing body comp. Food for thought for me - there's no reason that should be a linear trend, it's not a population analysis. We modify our behavior - will need to think about that line. Thanks.

ROBINSTL67

Fantastic update!

For some reason the Observed and Theoretical TDEE graph isn't generating for me (Excel 2013). The other 3 graphs (and rest of the document) work great. Not sure what might be causing that, but it's still worth using regardless.

I'm seeing this as well. Any suggestions?
And thank you so much, this tool is amazing!!